Interference [FORGETTING]

Question 1

What is proactive interference?

Answer 1

OLD information interfering with NEW information

Question 2

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 2

NEW information interfering with OLD information

Question 3

What is interference?

Answer 3

A proposed explanation for forgetting in LTM - when two pieces of information conflict with each other, resulting in forgetting one or distortion of memory

Question 4

What did McGeoch and McDonald show about the effect of similarity on interference?

Answer 4

• ppts had to learn a list of words with 100% accuracy
• they were then given one of 6 new lists to learn [synonyms, antonyms, numbers, nonsense, etc]
• ppts then had to recall the original list
  RESULTS
  ppts given synonyms/antonyms performed worst
  ppts with numbers/no new list were best
  = INTERFERENCE IS STRONGEST ON SIMILAR MEMORIES

Question 5

Why is McGeoch and McDonald’s study valid?

Answer 5

Lots of conditions

Highly controlled

Question 6

How has McGeoch and McDonald’s study been criticised?

Answer 6

Doesn’t account for different cognitive abilities

Lack of mundane realism

Question 7

How is interference supported by real life evidence?

Answer 7

BADDELEY & HITCH
- asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played that season
- this was tested weekly
RESULTS
accurate recall was not impacted by the amount of time passed, but by the amount of games played

Question 8

Why is the real life study more reliable than the lab one? interference

Answer 8

Lab experiment was designed to maximise the possibility of interference to test it effectively - this may not happen in real life